United Nations A/AC.109/2013/SR.8 General Assembly Distr.: General 24 July 2013 Original: English Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples Summary record of the 8th meeting Held at Headquarters, New York, on Thursday, 20 June 2013, at 10 a.m. Chair: Mr. Morejón ................................................... (Ecuador) later: Mr. León González (Vice-Chair)..................................(Cuba) Contents Adoption of the agenda Question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Hearing of petitioners This record is subject to correction. Corrections should be submitted in one of the working languages. They should be set forth in a memorandum and also incorporated in a copy of the record. They should be sent as soon as possible to the Chief of the Documents Control Unit ([email protected]). Corrected records will be reissued electronically on the Official Document System of the United Nations (http://documents.un.org/). 13-36953 (E) *1336953* A/AC.109/2013/SR.8 The meeting was called to order at 10.10 a.m. right to determine their own future, in accordance with Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations, article 1 Adoption of the agenda of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on 1. The agenda was adopted. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) 5. Following the referendum, all the elected (A/AC.109/2013/14; A/AC.109/2013/L.7) members of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands had travelled extensively throughout Latin 2. The Chair informed the Committee that the America, the United States and Europe, seeking delegations of Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, support for the Islanders’ right to self-determination. Costa Rica, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Widespread public support for that right had been Ghana, Guatemala, Mauritania, Mexico, Namibia, expressed, especially in several Caribbean countries. Peru, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and She hoped that some progress had been made towards Uruguay had indicated their wish to participate in the dispelling the one-sided narrative propagated by Committee’s consideration of the item. He drew Argentina and that more people around the world, attention to the working paper prepared by the including the members of the Committee, would see Secretariat on the question of the Falkland Islands the Islanders as a legitimate people with legitimate (Malvinas) (A/AC.109/2013/14) and to a draft rights. resolution on the issue (A/AC.109/2013/L.7). 6. Unfortunately, Argentina continued to spread Hearing of petitioners misinformation and to call for negotiations over sovereignty, yet it was clear that Argentina would 3. The Chair said that, in line with the Committee’s accept only one outcome, as the 1994 amendment to usual practice, petitioners would be invited to take a the Argentine Constitution stated that the Islands were place at the petitioners’ table and would withdraw after Argentine. The Argentine Government continued to making their statements. insist that the United Kingdom should comply with 4. Ms. Halford (Legislative Assembly of the non-binding United Nations resolutions on the issue, Falkland Islands) said that the people of the Falkland while ignoring the fact that in 1982 Argentina had Islands had exercised their right to self-determination failed to comply with two binding Security Council in March 2013, in accordance with General Assembly resolutions calling for the cessation of hostilities and resolution 2625 (XXV), by holding a referendum on the withdrawal of Argentine armed forces from the the political status of the Territory. The referendum had Islands. That illegal invasion had had a great human been proposed and organized by the Government of the cost and a significant impact on the sovereignty issue. Falkland Islands. The United Kingdom had agreed in The Argentine Government denounced the actions of advance to accept the outcome, unlike the Government the military dictatorship in 1982, yet continued to of Argentina, which continued to refuse to recognize celebrate the anniversary of the invasion with rallies the Islanders’ basic human rights. The referendum had and military parades. been monitored by a team of eight independent 7. The 2012 Falkland Islands population census international observers, who had found it to be free and showed that the inhabitants originated from some fair. The outcome had been clear, with 99.8 per cent of 57 different countries, including Chile, Argentina, the voters expressing the desire to remain a British Philippines, Germany, the Russian Federation and New overseas territory. The relationship between the Zealand. Over half of the population considered Falkland Islands and the United Kingdom was not the themselves to be Falkland Islanders first and British anachronistic colonial situation portrayed by second, suggesting that they had their own unique Argentina, but was a modern one in which the Falkland identity and way of life. Despite the Argentine Islanders were responsible for their internal affairs and Government’s efforts to disrupt the Islanders’ way of the United Kingdom respected their wishes. As the life, including Presidential Decree 256/2010, which United Nations had never explicitly denied the sought to severely restrict legitimate economic activity Falkland Islanders’ right to self-determination, the and shipping in the Islands’ waters, the people of the people of the Falkland Islands had the unequivocal Falkland Islands continued to develop their economy. 2/10 13-36953 A/AC.109/2013/SR.8 The Islanders were disappointed that the Argentine 11. Argentina had never owned the Falkland Islands, Government had walked away from efforts to develop although it clearly aspired to do so. Because the Islands cooperation on a range of issues of mutual benefit, had never had an indigenous population, their situation such as fisheries management in the South Atlantic. was unlike most colonial situations, including that of She hoped that the international community and the Argentina, where the indigenous population had been Committee would listen to the clearly expressed wishes slaughtered by the invading European colonists, the of the people of the Falkland Islands. forefathers of modern-day Argentine citizens. The Falkland Islands had been a British territory for nearly 8. Mr. Summers (Legislative Assembly of the 250 years and had been continuously and peacefully Falkland Islands) said that the Committee had failed to settled under British administration for over 180 years. deliver on its responsibility to help the remaining There had effectively been no restrictions on Non-Self-Governing Territories to achieve a political immigration to the Falklands until Argentina’s second status that was acceptable to them because it prioritized illegal invasion in 1982. Current immigration controls the interests of certain Member States over the wishes were non-partisan and non-discriminatory. of the people it was supposed to be assisting. The right to self-determination was integral to the decolonization 12. The members of the Committee were expected to process and the people of the Non-Self-Governing set aside their geopolitical alliances and friendships Territories had a right to be involved in all discussions and to support the right of the people of the Non-Self- about their future. Governing Territories to choose their political status, irrespective of competing sovereignty claims. By its 9. A number of countries sought to deny the own admission, the Committee had failed in its duty Falkland Islanders’ basic human rights by supporting for the past 20 years. He urged the Committee to Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over those Islands. examine and address the reasons for that failure and to While sovereign countries had the right to hold any visit the Territories concerned. The United Kingdom, views they liked, however misguided, the Committee as the administering Power of the Falkland Islands, had was not empowered to resolve sovereignty disputes — stated that it had no objection to such a visit and would including the one between the United Kingdom, the not set any conditions with regard to the composition administering Power, or Argentina, the aspiring of the delegation. He therefore reiterated, on behalf of colonial Power — or to decide that any of the the Falkland Islands Government, that the members of Non-Self-Governing Territories were not entitled to the Committee were invited to visit the Islands so that self-determination. The Committee should therefore they could assess the situation for themselves. respect the wish of the Falkland Islanders, as democratically and clearly expressed in the recent 13. Mr. Betts said that the British policy with regard referendum, to remain a British overseas territory. to the legal and political status of the Malvinas Islands, which it occupied illegally, was based on the “wishes” 10. The British claim to sovereignty over the of those who lived there. By law, however, those Falkland Islands dated back to 1765, several decades wishes did not constitute grounds for sovereignty when before the Argentine Republic had been established; expressed by the inhabitants of a Territory that was the that claim had never been renounced. When an subject of a sovereignty dispute. Neither the United Argentine military garrison had been sent to the Nations nor Argentina had recognized the inhabitants Falkland Islands in 1832, the United Kingdom had of the Malvinas as a people with its own legal immediately protested and expelled the garrison. personality distinct from that of the United Kingdom. However, the civilian population, including some In the unlawful 2013 referendum contrived by the Argentines, had been encouraged to remain. Moreover, British Government, which had had a predetermined the Convention of Settlement, ratified by the British outcome, the Islanders themselves had openly asserted and Argentine Governments in 1850, had that they were indivisible from the people of the comprehensively settled existing differences.